PT BLOG from Page 36
operation. Anyone looking for a lot of good parking knowledge? You could do worse than giving Doug a call. Contact him at
wdh1@psu.edu.
Law of Unintended Consequences Kicks In on EV Free Parking (Posted July 29)
I received this note from correspondent Joe: I cannot believe EV Free Parking. Instead, they should
address how these electric vehicles are going to pay their fair share of the road taxes that are combined in our gasoline prices. So let’s see: They will potentially park free and not pay for the upkeep of our road system. I wonder what else we can give them. Joe has a point. EV drivers get carpool lane usage in many
places, even if they have only one person in the car. They get free parking in many cities. They don’t pay nearly as much road tax (because they don’t use as much gas, and it’s the gas tax that pays for roads). They get free electricity to charge their cars. What’s next, government subsidy of the price … ? Oh, we
already have that with the $7,500 tax credit. I wonder if the fact that battery manufacturers are getting lots of government help will keep the prices of batteries down? Yeah, right. But let’s get back to the unintended consequences. The gas tax and its use for roads is a fairly even-handed tax. The more you drive,
the more you use the roads and the more you pay. Fair enough. How- ever, if you have an electric car, you may drive just as far, but you pay less, or nothing, for the maintenance of the roads. That’s not only not fair, its outright theft. Has anyone considered a surtax for EVs, to cover the use of the
highways? When the government does, and it will, should EV pur- chasers be able to return their cars as having bought them under false pretenses? In California, the incentive for hybrids to drive in the carpool
lane with only one person in the car has ended. Let’s see, I bought a hybrid so I could drive solo in the carpool lane, but now the law has changed and I can’t. I hate it when that happens. My favorite law cuts both ways. BTW—If they get free charging, as is offered in many cities,
what incentive is there for them to charge at home? Why not simply charge at the office and not at home? Every car will be charging and taking up that space. The garages will have to install more and more chargers and
develop costly systems to handle the cars. So to solve this little prob- lem, cities and private operators will start charging for electricity. I can see a PR nightmare looming on the horizon. When you start offering “incentives,” Pandora never gets back into the box. You create more problems than you solve.
Continued on Page 52
Refurbished Parking Meters
METER PRODUCTS CO., INC.
38
Parking Today
www.parkingtoday.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64